Since the dawn of photography, artists and photographers alike
have sought to instil their own interpretation of colour and tone into the scene.
Perhaps, originally, economy and the relative difficulty of colour photography
were the motivation for hand-tinting. Whatever the reason, the fact is that
hand-tinting can lead to many satisfying and subtly different pictures. No one
need by enslaved by the colour existing in the original scene, for the whole
picture or a section of it may be altered to present a more satisfactory representation
of the subject.

With the advent of DI many more possibilities are made available.

Monochrome pictures can be tinted and toned to give a wide
variety of subtle nuances and moods. One can combine a whole range of tinting
and toning techniques to weave a blend of hue and wash of colour across the
scene. Remember that if you are tinting a monochrome image, you will need to
either scan as RGB or change the mode from Greyscale to RGB. (Do this via Image
> Mode > RGB Color).

For those just beginning to experiment with hand-tinting using
Photoshop, I begin with some general notes about brushes and their selection.

SOME INFORMATION ABOUT BRUSHES

Mouse or Pen & Tablet?

Without doubt the best and most natural method of working is
with the pen and tablet – it’s just like working with a natural brush and is
both easy and intuitive. Unlike the mouse, the pen is pressure sensitive – which
means the harder one presses upon the pad, the broader or denser the paint upon
the ‘page’. The pen can also be sensitive to the angle of use and so perform
just like a real airbrush. As 'Wacom' is probably the most widely used pen &
tablet combination, I'll refer to this throughout.

Which brush tool to choose – ‘Airbrush, Paintbrush or Pencil?

Each tool presents different opportunities.

Airbrush

This performs something like a real airbrush, however the important
thing to remember is that with successive coverings, performed without
removing the tool from the image (so it’s all one long stroke) the intensity
of the colour will build as the same area is covered more than once.

Airbrush Pressure

The Pressure box on the Options Bar sets the strength of
the stroke rated in %. When used in combination with the 'Brush Dynamics' >
Pressure > Stylus, the use of the airbrush becomes more sublte, taking longer
to build density.

The pressure related sensitivity may be turned on and off by
ticking / unticking 'Stylus' in the 'Pressure' box in 'Brush Dynamics'.

By ticking the 'Color' box in 'Brush Dynamics', the brush can
be made to fade / paint between the chosen foreground and background colours
with some interesting results. The fading is governed by stylus pressure.

Paintbrush

This tool is similar to the Airbrush and edges may be soft
or hard. Repeated coverings over the same area without releasing the tool do
not result in increased saturation. However, by releasing and re-applying
successive brush strokes, this will increase the covering/saturation - just
like a real brush.

Ticking the 'Wet Edges' box on the Options Bar will give a
wet-defined edge to the brush strokes you make should you require it.

Pencil

The Pencil is available by dragging-out from the Paintbrush
icon on the Tool bar (or by Shift + B, this toggles between the Paintbrush and
the Pencil).

The pencil tends to be a little less subtle than the two brushes
mentioned above. The edges are hard. It performs similarly to 'Paintbrush'.
However options of opacity, stylus size and colour are available performing
as in 'Paintbrush'. For 'Auto Erase' see below.

Common Options related to the three brushes above - available
from the Brush Dynamics (Square Box and brush icon to the right of the Options
bar). Note: The Brush Dynamics box presents many combinations. It's worth experimenting
with various values and pre-sets to discover how each one operates.

Airbrush

Size - 'Off' - The brush size remains
as chosen

Size - 'Fade' - The brush size will
fade like a comet-tail in a number of 'steps' as numerically selected

Size - 'Stylus' - The brush stroke
size will vary according to the pressure exerted by the Wacom pen

Pressure - 'Off' - the stroke from
Wacom pen is not pressure sensitive

Pressure - 'Fade' - The stroke fades away in a number of
'steps', as numerically selected

Functions are similar to Paintbrush but with hard edges. It
does however have the 'Auto Erase' option, which if ticked, paints F/G colour
over B/G colour. This only works if you begin the stroke within
an area where there is paint already. Unlike the other two brushes, the
Pencil maintains a dead centre cross hair at all times (inside the outline of
the brush selected. This may be difficult to se with some of the textured brushes).

'Fade' / 'Steps' Option

This is available for all three of the above and if selected,
determines the fade-out or comet-trail-like appearance of the stroke you make
over the image area. To use, enter a value in the Fade/Steps box. In actual
practice, for hand-tinting, I rarely use this function.

Brush size

It's essential to have knowledge of how large an area is covered
by the brush tool in use, therefore ensure that both 'Brush Size' and
'Precise' options are selected in the Display & Cursors preference.
This is found under File > Preferences > Display & Cursors. Set Painting
Cursors to 'Brush Size' and Other Cursors to 'Precise'.

Making Your Own Brush

Remember that you can make a brush shape and size to your own
specification that includes such things as 'Hardness' and 'Angle'.

Click on the top right arrow in Brush Options and follow the
simple dialogue box.

Deleting a Brush or Brushes

A quick method is to select the brush you wish to delete and
by holding down the 'Alt Gr' key to the right of the space bar,
scissors appear and this will cut-out / delete the brush. Repeated clicks will
delete a whole series - so watch out!

Alternatively you can choose the 'Delete
Brush' option, by clicking on the4
arrow again in the Brush Options box and choosing 'Delete Brush'.

Extra Ranges and Fancy Shaped Brushes

These can be loaded from within Photoshop.

Click on the drop down arrow to the right
of the Brush Size icon at the top left of the Options Bar. From the Brush Size
menu that appears click on the top right 'fly-out' arrow, from the list that
now appears, choose 'Load Brushes' and a list will be shown. Successively select
and load the ones you want - all sorts to choose from.

Preserving Transparency

This option is useful if you do not wish
to apply 'paint' to an area of the image that is 'transparent'. This can only
apply to a layer that is not Background. To retain transparency, simply
click in the tick box to the left of the little chequered square towards the
top of the Layers palette (V6) or click / tick the box towards the top of the
Layers palette, labelled 'Preserve Transparency (V5 / V5.5). See more about
the use of this function, when painting on a layer below.

Brush tool not working?

If you discover your brush tool is not functioning,
it could be that the 'Fade' is selected and the 'steps' have been inadvertently
set to 1 or some other very low figure.

The other common reason for a nonfunctional
tool is that a 'selection' has been left running (perhaps 'hidden'). Use Ctrl
+ D to remove an unwanted 'selection'.

Check the 'Preserve Transparency' Lock tick
box in the Layers Palette. If 'ticked' the brush will not paint in an empty
(no pixels area), this could be the case if you have a new, empty layer.See above and a further note below.

HAND-TINTING

GETTING DOWN TO IT

The secret of success is to be subtle in
your application of colour and to gradually build up the depth of saturation
you require.

When starting, most people choose a colour
and a convenient brush and begin painting with the Brush Options 'Blend
Mode' set at Normal. This will undoubtedly work, however, for better
results choose either Color or Overlay as the blend mode. To make
this choice click on the downward arrow near the top left-hand corner of the
Brush Options palette (it'll probably have 'Normal' in the small box) and from
the list choose 'color' - it's near the bottom, or 'Overlay' -
a few down from the top. (These are blend modes by the way and you can
have lots of interesting explorations with these).

Color or Overlay modes are
much more appropriate for our use as they retain the luminance (black &
white) information from the image and do not paint-out either full black or
full white. In this way, a good sense of grey scale is preserved together with
crisp whites and full blacks.

Which to choose - Color or Overlay Blend
mode?

One is not better than the other. They are
not the same either as each will render the colour slightly differently. Experiment
with your chosen image to discover which is the most appropitae to use. You
can have different layers set to different blend modes.

Remember - Painting in Normal
mode will paint over and obscure the black & white component of the image.

New Layers for Painting

Having scanned in the image, create a New
Layer upon which to apply the paint. This has the advantage of not corrupting
the original and enables the Opacity of the paint layer to be altered if necessary.
This new Layer needs to be set to 'Color' or 'Overlay' (blend mode),
just like the brush (see above). However, once painting on a layer, the brush
mode can remain set to 'normal' - the layer mode is making the blend
mode work. Note: leaving the brush set to 'Color' or 'Overlay' is OK should
you do so.

Colour or Overlay blend mode? They work
equally welll. Some images benefit from one or the other, you'll need to experiment
to determine which is the most suitable for the image in question.

About Preserving transparency ..........
This is Important

For 'normal painting' using a separate
layer for the colour, keep the 'Preserve Transparency' box unticked
in the Layers Options palette.

NB Should 'Preserve Transparency'
be ticked, on your colour tinting layer, then your brush will be inoperative.
However should you wish to paint only on an area already painted, then
ticking the 'Preserve Transparency' box will only allow you paint where a
previous paint stroke has been made. This has implications where precision
is required.

Want to Paint in Dead Straight Lines?

Should you need to do this, hold down the
Shift Key as you paint.

OK So Far?

When you are satisfied with a stage in your
work, create another layer for the next session/area of paint and so on. In
this way subtle changes of layer opacity between layers can be made.
And a whole layer may be deleted if a particular effect is not pleasing (we
all make mistakes!).

The layers can also be individually adjusted
by the application of Layer Masks/Adjustment Layers/Clipping Groups
etc allowing yet more variations and artistry. The blend mode of
each layer can also be set to give yet more options as the layers interact with
one another.

Selecting Your Colour.

When clicking on either Foreground or Backround
colour to reveal the Colour Picker dialogue box one is presented with several
choices about display. The dialogue box presents a square with the cursor at
the selected colour, however it can be displayed in the following ways. H =
Hue, S = Saturation, B = Brightness, R = Red, G = Green and B = Blue. Don't
be surprised if either R, G or B gives an unlikely range of colours as it all
depends upon where the colour cursor has been positioned. I find the two most
useful options to be either H or B but it depends upon how you prefer to work.

Making Your Very Own Palette of Colours

Either increase the canvas size with a white
background chosen to give a white border or open a new (blank) image file, again
ensuring the background is white. Paint sweeps of different colours into the
area, overlapping and mingling them with different pressures/opacities. Use
the Smudge Tool too to mix and blend the colours. This creates your own mixing
palette. Use the Eyedropper tool to select the colours you need and paint
away. This is quicker than choosing the F/G or B/G route or Colour / Swatches
palettes etc - and you get to use your own special blends.

If you need a specific colour reference
from another image, simply open it and use the Eyedropper tool to sample
it.

Working the Paint on the Image

Build up large blocks of colour - don't
worry if you overpaint the limits of the area - as the paint has its own layer(s),
this can be corrected later (by using a layer mask).

Remember that rarely are whole areas of
colour simply one colour, each will have nuances of brightness, saturation
and hue. Mingle other colours very subtly in amongst the initial set you've
chosen. Take bricks and stone as examples, these contain a wealth of small changes
in hue - so echo this and include overlays of other colours to render the work
more convincing.

Knowing when to stop is important, one brushstroke
too many can ruin a fine image - if you're uncertain, save different versions
of the image as you near conclusion.

Hand-tinting is often even more effective
when combined with a background wash of gentle tone. Go to Toning and Duotones
for more info.